Wives and husbands of members of the armed forces are missing out on state pension top-ups worth up to £30,000, research shows.
The issue surrounds the Armed Forces National Insurance credit scheme (AFNICS).
This is meant to help 20,000 armed forces spouses get their full state pension if they join their partners on an overseas posting.
Without AFNICS, moving overseas can mean missing out on National Insurance credits, which are used to work out how much state pension you get.
You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions to get the maximum weekly state pension of £179.60 a week, and 10 years to get anything at all.
As the state pension is a UK benefit, moving overseas can mean losing out on these credits.
Have you missed out on a state pension top-up? Message mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
AFNICS top-ups can add £30,000 to a state pension over the course of retirement.
The scheme launched in 2016, but the scheme is only helping 45% of the people it was designed for, according to wealth manager Quilter.
Quilter put a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which runs the scheme, to find out how many people have signed up.
The firm found that just 9,019 have taken advantage of the state pension top-up since 2016 - and the true figure might be even lower.
Quilter's first FOI request was rejected by HMRC, which said it could not track how many people had used the scheme.
The wealth manager then appealed the FOI, and HMRC came back with data from Google Analytics - not its own data.
The 9,019 figure is just the people who went on the gov.uk website to download the form needed to apply - not the number of people who completed a successful application.
"On appeal the Google Analytics data was provided but is inaccurate meaning the scheme is not being properly tracked for its effectiveness," Quilter said.
In the 2017/18 tax year, 1,887 people downloaded the form.
The figure was 1,531 for 2018/19, 1,953 for 2019/20 and 1,685 for 2020/1.
Quilter pensions expert Ian Browne said: "The government will only be able to understand how to best help those that it serves if it collects quality data that can be then used to understand the effectiveness of any of its schemes.
"While the armed forces National Insurance credit scheme is clearly well meaning, to be over five years into the scheme and be unable to accurately report the number of people who have actually claimed the NI credit is reprehensible."
There is no time limit on claiming the National Insurance credits provided the overseas posting was on or after April 6 1975.
A government spokesperson said: "We value the incredible sacrifice made by our armed forces and their families, who may have needed to move abroad during their service.
“Not everyone who can claim these credits does, but that does not mean they are missing out - there are many ways by which people can build their National Insurance records, including by registering for child benefit, and therefore some may not need them.”
Anyone who is concerned about their NI record can easily check online via a government website to see where they stand.
